New info?!?

I've been lurking on the site since I joined this year. I have read as much as I can about all of this. Most of the posts I have read have not been updated for a long time. There is newer better smaller stuff on the market now. I need an idiots idiot guide to what and how to make a PC work in a car. A straight forward list of gear would be awesome! I am not a computer guy, but know enough to get my self out of trouble. I have friends who are computer savvy for most questions. I want to use the PC for a complete in-car system with as much stuff as possible. I'm willing and able to do whatever it takes to have it work. I want a screen around the 10"+ range and have the room to do it. I want it to do the standard stuff such as music, movies, GPS, net... What is the best of the best on the market now? I have the means, just not the knowledge.

And once again, I have looked at all the recent posts and no one is using the new gear... I'm not saying that its not the best if they aren't using it, just no one seems to want to spend the money, or what they currently have works for them which is fine.

I should have figured I was gonna get the same lame answers when new people ask questions... ( look at the faq, blah blah blah) I have been all over this site for quite some time and have yet to find and recent posts about what I'm asking, therefore I'm asking. Forgive me if you don't want to answer.

With a carputer there is many things to take into consideration. The first thing to think about is what kind of computer are you going to use. Notebook/netbook or a full computer using basic desktop hardware. Most people will use basic desktop hardware because it is generally easier to work with and more customizable. After you decide what computer to go with you need to decide how to power. If you have a notebook/netbook then the easiest way to power it is just by getting a normal power brick for it and plug it into an inverter. the issue with this method is that it is very inefficient and not always the safest way to go. Most people would recommend using basic desktop hardware and power it with a dc/dc psu such as an Opus or a m4atx. the power consumption of the computer also determines this too. If you have a small pc that does the most of playing back a little bit of music and/or running internet then it really shouldn't be too powerful of a computer which would require only a small psu. If you want an example of a high power carputer then refer to Hijack's worklog.

Originally Posted by Lincolnman

Your English is fine, don't apologize. You're doing better than most Americans.

If you want to use newer gear, then it's up to you to figure out how to make it work. Measure power draws, choose your power supply based on that, and put it all together.

I'm not saying that its not the best if they aren't using it, just no one seems to want to spend the money, or what they currently have works for them which is fine.

The reason people don't usually use the latest & greatest bleeding-edge hardware is cost. There are other viable hardware choices that cost much less than the newest kit on the planet.
Frankly, you don't need the newest, coolest bits for the functions you'll be performing in a car.

Here is my build log. Money was "not an issue". I have been very pleased with the i5/i7 line in home use for speed so I figured why not in a carputer. Most people here seem to look for the lowest cost option that works so high end configurations tend to be sparse. The 3 biggest pieces of advice are laptop or desktop, set a budget, and set a power limit. With mine for instance, my audio components are high powered, so I only had so much power left for the computer. Thus, I had to keep the computer under 250watts.

The other piece of advice with helped me lock in on the PC, was going to a meet. I couldn't tell anything from the forums definitively of which monitor I wanted. I went to a meet, met some great and knowledgeable people, asked the questions I was interested in, and made my decision. With money and latest and greatest gear, you can do amazing things. My setup currently has a 17 second cold boot time and every program opens instantly. That was one of my primary goals, so I bought the computer to handle it. Many people here also use hibernate to improve non-cold boot times and are satisfied with 2-4+ seconds for programs to open (this is even standard in most professional work environments), or a very minor delay when pushing buttons, or...... Really the possibilities are limitless, its just a matter of defining the criteria in which you want the system to exist.

Like everyone, the worklogs helped a ton, but the meet helped even more once I had an idea of where I was headed. I would help you for the AMD question, but haven't used them in 5 years so have no idea where they are at.

Edit: Also to note, I performed a stress test for my application last week. Using pandora one, zune software, winamp, firefox 5 tabs with 2 streaming flash, ie 5 tabs with 2 streaming flash, RR, win7 voice recognition, and a few other applications, I use 45% cpu usage and 55% memory. Thus in a real application, the PC should use 25% cpu usage and 40% memory, thus using less watts and generating less heat.

The other thing to note is choose your OS wisely. Windows is not the most efficient. However, I have been using Windows since I was 3. I am now 26. I am very comfortable messing with registries and services. My initial boot time was 28 seconds completely unmodified. I also have no issues with reformatting if I mess something up, which with the SSD I have only took 18 minutes so not a big deal.